Subnautica is a special one for me. The first game was the survival/crafting game that really gripped me, and turned me into someone who enjoys exploring the genre and seeing what else people can come up with. And yet, despite that, it’s very, very rare that a game makes me feel anywhere near the feeling I had during my first Subnautica playthrough. I’m very excited to say I got to sit in on a private digital showcase for Subnautica 2, and its upcoming May 14th early access release. Following that up with a public showcase the next day, I think I am in a good position to say that Subnautica 2 is shaping up to be something on the scale of the first game, and I can’t wait to get my feet wet yet again in this universe.
We started out with an introductory segment where the lead dev talked about the game while new gameplay was shown, and one of the first statements meant a ton to me. Subnautica 1 is the guidepost for this game. Subnautica: Below Zero was fun, but felt more like an expansion or a DLC, and never quite hit the heights that the first game did. It was made worse by a chatty protagonist and an annoying “always in your head” AI companion yapping at you. It really feels like they listened to the feedback received during Below Zero and took it into great consideration when crafting this experience. It was cool to hear that many of the original ideas from Subnautica 1 that were constrained by technical limitations are now seeing the light of day. One of the big parts of that is increased interaction among flora, fauna, and the environment, which is sure to bring even more life to the world of Subnautica 2.
This waterlogged planet that Subnautica 2 takes place on is home to a previously failed human colony that was wiped out long before the player arrives. Speaking of the player, it seems they have a bout of amnesia at the start of the game, and don’t know how they arrived on this planet. Thankfully, it seems in addition to all the technological advantages from the first game, this one will also feature an upgrade system involving mutations, which is cool to see. The Protag is silent, and the initial scope for Early Access will be 10 biomes, 14-20 hours of gameplay, and they are aiming for an Early Access period of 2 years, which is less than either of the previous games.
I was glad to see the new vehicle they showcased seems to have a lot more personality and function than Below Zero’s replacement for Subnautica 1’s beloved personal sub, the Seamoth. The Tadpole is modular, allowing you to fit it with different chassis to add functionality, like wings to increase its speed or an enlarged cargo hold for long hauls or relocating a base. Speaking of bases, the base building system has been completely redesigned and is MUCH more powerful and versatile than ever before. You will be able to reshape basically every building part as you please, instead of being held back by a small choice of pre-fabricated rooms like in the previous games. When they were discussing the changes to base building, I could not help but notice how absolutely breathtaking this game looked. The glow-up from the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 is not to be understated, especially when it comes to the lighting. I hate to say it, but I can’t wait to find myself 300 meters below sea level in a dark cavern surrounded by bioluminescence when it looks this good!
Now, for possibly the biggest addition Subnautica 2 brings, Co-op play. Subnautica is a franchise famous for how well it does isolation. That, mixed together with the unknown depths ahead of you, makes for an unforgettable feeling that is hard to recreate. I was a bit worried that this game would either focus on the co-op experience or lose that sense of isolation. I have heard from the devs over and over now that this game is balanced and designed for the single-player experience, and I couldn’t be happier about that. Will I still get into some 1-4 player co-op with my buddies for some deep-sea shenanigans? Absolutely! The team assured us that there are some unique terrors for those of you who want to go for just co-op, likened to the feeling of watching a good horror movie with friends. Between sharing in that fear, you can bet there are some flora and fauna out there capable of displacing you from your friends, where you will suddenly be very alone, all over again.
After this segment, we talked a bit about the Early Access roadmap and what to expect in the first year or so. The first update will focus on bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. Some often-requested features, like sprinting, won’t make it into the first release and will be a priority focus for the first update. After that, the next release will be a co-op-focused update that adds more quality-of-life features, such as proximity voice chat and emotes for the player character. The final update they discussed would be the big world expansion after the two quality-of-life updates, bringing new biomes, new leviathans, vehicles, and the next chapter of the story. And yes, for my Cyclops fans from Subnautica 1, they did confirm we will get another large submarine vehicle that functions as a mobile base.
After that, they did a big question & answer segment to finish the showcase off, and here were some of my highlights from that. Multiplayer will have shared progression; they want to make jumping between single-player and co-op as seamless as possible for those who want to hop between the two. I mentioned it earlier, but again, the point about how much more “reactive” the world of Subnautica 2 will feel was hammered home here, assuring us that this was part of their original vision. It sounds like they really want to make Subnautica 2 feel even more like a living, breathing, real world, and I couldn’t be more pumped about that notion. Co-op will feature a no-leash system, allowing players to be as far or as close as they or the world’s fauna desire. A big point for me was mentioning that they have seen all the quality-of-life changes in the survival genre since Subnautica 1, and that a ton of them will be integrated into the second main game. The big one for me is crafting benches from your storage; that is just a massive time-saver and a welcome convenience for someone who likes to hoard items in these games.
After all of this, I am absolutely counting down the days until Subnautica 2 Early Access. Can’t wait to dive in both feet first in my own solo world and enjoy discovering the massive planet with my friends in co-op. The future feels bright for this one, and I couldn’t be more excited to say that after the long wait.
